Jeff Malet Photography

Great Protest Images

Demonstrators in front of the White House north fence mark the 95th anniversary of the deliberate and systematic destruction of the Armenian population of the Ottoman Empire during and just after World War I. Many in the Armenian community are upset that President Obama, who as a candidate promised to use the term genocide to describe the Ottoman slaughter of 1.5 million Armenians, in a recent statement commemorating the event, declined to do so. The Republic of Turkey, a NATO ally, denies the word genocide is an accurate description of the events. In March, the House Foreign Affairs Committee voted narrowly to condemn the mass killings as an act of genocide. Turkey briefly recalled its ambassador from Washington in protest.
The starting date of the genocide is conventionally held to be April 24, 1915, the day that Ottoman authorities arrested some 250 Armenian intellectuals and community leaders in Constantinople. April, 24, 2010 in Washington DC. (Photo by Jeff Malet)